After the sad passing of Natalie Zemon Davis, our long-running lecture series has been renamed in her memory. It will continue to engage with topics that engaged her scholarship and inspired generations of historians.
In 2025, the lecture series was delivered by Lorraine Daston, Director Emerita of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. Prof. Daston delivered three lectures on the topic of Diversity: The History of a Wandering Value.
The lectures were on Diversity as Beauty on Monday, March 10, 2025, Diversity as Efficiency on Tuesday, March 11, 2025 (held at the Natural History Museum in Vienna) and Diversity as Justice on Thursday, March 13, 2025.
This year's Natalie Zemon Davis Memorial Lectures will be given by Sherene Seikaly on the topic of History as Companionship: Disease, Friendship, and Violence. The lectures will be as follows:
17.03.2026 - Smallpox in Sudan
18.03.2026 - Yellow Fever in Baltimore
19.03.2026 - Typhoid in Palestine